Organized by Nora Dimitrova, Stephen V. Tracy and Paul Iversen

Bilingual inscriptions are among the most exciting archaeological discoveries in the complex crossroads of civilizations and ethnicities that constituted the Greco-Roman world. Bilingual inscriptions can help decipher a new language and are of particular importance in reconstructing various aspects of cultural interaction – from personal expressions of religious worship or metrical epitaphs to official documents published throughout the Roman Empire. They reveal which language was better known in a certain community, the level of literacy in different social strata, the terminology of public administration, the specifics of local idiom, and many other facets of cultural history.

The American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy welcomes papers that discuss bilingual inscriptions in the Greco-Roman world. We are interested in selecting a group of papers that treat a broad variety of topics and exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of epigraphy.

Abstracts will be adjudicated anonymously by a committee of ASGLE and should not be longer than one page. See the ASGLE APA Panel Webpage for directions on how to submit an abstract. The deadline is February 1, 2011.

http://www.case.edu/artsci/clsc/asgle/congress.html

The American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (ASGLE) invites abstracts for the First North American Epigraphical Congress, to be held on January 5th, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas at the Marriott Riverwalk, over the course of a single day, immediately before the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association (APA) and the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). The topic will be broadly defined as Greek and Latin Epigraphy.

Abstracts will be adjudicated anonymously by a committee of ASGLE; they should include the title but not the author’s name and they should not be longer than one double-spaced page.  There is a limit of one abstract per person. The abstracts themselves, along with a completed abstract submission form, should be sent electronically as pdf files to: Nora Dimitrova, Vice-President, ASGLE, at nmd5@cornell.edu. The deadline is June 15, 2010.

Registration for the Congress must be made online here. The registration fee before December 1, 2010 is $35 for student and $50 for non-student participants, which includes a group dinner. After December 1, 2010 the rate will be $50 for students and $70 for non-students.  ASGLE full members receive a $10 discount and ASGLE student/retirees a $5.00 discount.  To become a member of ASGLE, see here.  There will be a stipend  available for at least one student whose abstract is accepted.

In the future, these congresses are expected to be held immediately before the APA/AIA meetings. This should have the additional benefit of attracting a large number of Classicists and archaeologists to the audience of the congress and promoting epigraphy among graduate students attending the meetings.

Interested scholars from all countries are encouraged to participate.

Please cross-post this announcement.

I’ve received the above picture of a stamp with the following query:

When I was on a trip to Petra, Jordan, I happened to find an object that looks like a lead (bronze?) stamp. It bears an inscription in letters which are definitely Greek. Its diameter is 2 cm, the shape reminds of a truffle (a cone with a rounded tip).

I would really like to know when and where it was made, how it could get to Petra and what it says. You see, I am a philologist passionately interested in connections between nations, but I live in Sweden and here I could not find anyone knowledgeable enough to give me a trustworthy answer. I realize that it is a pretty difficult question to answer as Petra was visited by people from many countries, and Greek was so wide-spread. But please tell me what you think.

I am enclosing a picture on which the image is reversed – that is how the impression of the stamp would look.

Any idea what it says?  Perhaps a reference to Τύχη?

-The 2010 ASGLE APA Panel will be held in Anaheim, CA on Saturday,  January 9 from 8:30 – 11:00 AM.

Greek and Latin Inscriptions: New Discoveries
Organizers:  Paul Iversen and Stephen V. Tracy

The line-up of speakers includes:

-Nikolaos Papzarkadas, University of California, Berkeley and D. Sourlas. “A New Fragment of IG I³ 1149 (Epitaph for the Argives Killed at the Battle of Tanagra).”

-Gerald V. Lalonde, Grinnell College. “Two ‘New’ Horos Inscriptions of the Boule of the Areiopagos: Epigraphy and Topography.”

-John D. Morgan, University of Delaware. “Athens and the Aleuads.”

-Nora Dimitrova and Kevin Clinton, Cornell University. “Maroneia Honors Q. Lutatius Catulus in Samothrace.”

-Christopher Wallace, University of Toronto. “Murder, Mayhem and Salt: IPriene 111 and the publicani in Roman Asia.”

-Steven L. Tuck, Miami University. “Fistulae and Freedmen: Lead Water Pipes and Shifting Imperial Realities on the Bay of Naples.”

Dear All, 

There are several upcoming ASGLE events:

-ASGLE Annual Business Meeting at the APA/AIA Meetings (Philadelphia, PA),  Friday, January 9, 4:30-5:30 p.m. in Room 413 of the Loews hotel (across the street from the Marriott).  All are welcome to attend.  Items to discuss include progress towards non-profit status and a possible North American conference on Epigraphy sponsored by ASGLE.

-ASGLE Joint APA/AIA Panel, “The Study and Publication of Inscriptions in the Age of the Computer,” organized by Tom Elliott and Paul Iversen.  Saturday, January 10, 8:30-11:00 a.m. in Independence I of the Marriott Hotel.  Speakers and topics include:

            1.  “Publishing Image and Text in Digital Epigraphy.” Neel Smith (College of the Holy Cross).

            2.  “Topic Maps and the Semantics of Inscriptions.” Marion Lamé (Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Italy and Université  de  Provence, Aix-Marseille 1, France).

            3.  “An Efficient Method for Digitizing Squeezes & Performing Automated Epigraphic Analysis.” Eleni Bozia, Angelos Barmpoutis and Robert S. Wagman (University of Florida).

            4.  “Opportunities for Epigraphy in the Context of 3-D Digitization.” Gabriel Bodard (King’s College London) and Ryan Baumann (Univ. of Kentucky).

-“The Etruscan Objects Speak: New Linguistic and Socio-Historical Approaches to Etruscan Epigraphy.”  Saturday, January 10, 1:30-4:30 p.m. in Independence I of the Marriott Hotel.

-CALL FOR PAPERS for the 2010 ASGLE Joint APA/AIA meetings in Anaheim, CA:  “Greek and Latin Inscriptions: New Discoveries.”  Organized by Stephen V. Tracy and Paul Iversen.

            As archaeological artifacts that preserve writing from the ancient past, inscriptions constitute one of our most valuable primary sources of evidence for the ancient Mediterranean world.  Their importance cannot be stressed too much.  The Society seeks to create a panel that will offer to the audience new and ex-citing discoveries about Greek and Latin inscriptions. The Society, therefore, welcomes papers that present new texts, new joins, new archaeological find spots, new readings, new interpretations or new methodologies.  We are particularly interested in papers that discuss truly new and important texts or really innovative interpretations or methodologies.

            Abstracts will be adjudicated anonymously by a committee of ASGLE and should not be longer than one page.  Please follow the instructions for the format of Individual Abstracts that will appear in the Program Guide of the October issue of the APA Newsletter.  Abstracts should be sent electronically in either Word 97-2004 for-mat with a .doc extension or as a PDF to: Stephen Tracy, Vice-President, ASGLE at stracy@ias.edu. The deadline is February 1, 2009.

- CALL FOR PAPERS, 2010 ASGLE Joint APA/AIA Panel, Orange County (Anaheim), CA January 6-9, 2010 (Wed. – Sat.)

Greek and Latin Inscriptions: New Discoveries, organizers: Stpehen V. Tracy and Paul Iversen

As archaeological artifacts that preserve writing from the ancient past, inscriptions constitute one of our most valuable primary sources of evidence for the ancient Mediterranean world. Their importance cannot be stressed too much. The Society seeks to create a panel that will offer to the audience new and exciting discoveries about Greek and Latin inscriptions. The Society, therefore, welcomes papers that present new texts, new joins, new archaeological find spots, new readings, new interpretations or new methodologies. We are particularly interested in papers that discuss truly new and important texts or really innovative interpretations or methodologies.

Abstracts will be adjudicated anonymously by a committee of ASGLE and should not be longer than one page. Please follow the instructions for the format of Individual Abstracts that will appear in the Program Guide of the October issue of the APA Newsletter. Abstracts should be sent electronically in either Word 97-2004 format with a .doc extension or as a PDF to: Stephen Tracy, Vice-President, ASGLE at stracy@ias.edu. The deadline is February 1, 2009.

- ASGLE has money for Dissertation Research Awards. These awards consist in travel money for a student working on an epigraphical dissertation to visit a collection somewhere. Send in a proposal to the Secretary-Treasurer (paul.iversen@cwru.edu) with a letter of support from your advisor. All applicants should be members of ASGLE and will be required to write up a report.

- The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at The Ohio State University offers short-term fellowships (of one to four months duration) to support visitors pursuing post-doctoral research in Greek and Latin history and epigraphy. See the Center’s web page for the application guidelines.

- The University of Cincinnati Classics Department offers research support with their Margo Tytus Visiting Scholars Program. For more information and application guidelines, see here.

- The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at the Ohio State University offers a summer course in Greek epigraphy July 27 – August 7, 2009. For more information, see here.

- The Vergilian Society will be sponsoring some summer 2009 tours. See the Society’s web page for more information.

- Rex Wallace, UMass Amherst, recently published Zikh Rasna, A Manual of the Etruscan Language and Inscriptions.

-The ATHENIANS PROJECT is pleased to announce the recent publication of 2 more volumes of Persons of Ancient Athens.

Volume 16: Sym- to Tychonides, xviii + 481pp ISBN 978-0-0685232-9-2

Volume 17: U- to Philostratos, xviii + 399pp ISBN 978-0-9810250-0-1

All volumes 1-17 are in print and available at ATHENIANS, Victoria College, Toronto, ON M5S 1K7, Canada. Website: chass.utoronto.ca/attica. A special discount is granted to members of ASGLE and to their affiliated institutions.

For more information on how to become a member of ASGLE, see the Society’s web page.

This final post features a fragment of white, micaceous marble preserving the upper right corner of an inscription of at least eight lines with red paint preserved in many letters. It is broken to the left, below, and on the back. It was found 12 August, 1977 in Quarry Trench XVI. A pair of parallel register lines has been lightly incised 0.009 and 0.010 m. respectively from the top edge of the stone establishing an upper margin. Intermittent faint traces of register lines appear above lines two to eight at intervals of 0.010 m. Photo, squeeze, and autopsy of stone.

Unpublished.
Height, 0.088 m. ; width, 0.090 m. ; thickness, 0.038 m.
Height of letters, 0.004 to 0.008 m. ; interspace, 0.002 to 0. 003 m.
Corinth inventory I-77-10 ; NB 652, p. 61 ; NB(FI) 687, pp. 36-37, Object 829

PROXENY DECREE?

fin. IV – med. II a. NON-STOIX

          [θεό]ς̣· vac. 0.084 m.                 1
[— — — — — ]ρίτου vac. 0.038 m.
[— — — — — —] τετάρται
[— — — — — —]ύ̣δωρον v
[— — — — — —]σσαν v                  5
[— — — — — —]πολιτεί-
[α— — — — — —]το vac. 0.030 m.
[— — — — — — —]υ̣ς v
[— — — — — — — —]

Apparatus:
Line 1: The final letter trace can be a gamma, sigma or tau. Given that it appears we have the upper right corner of a decree, [θεό]ς̣ seems likely. If [θεό]ς̣ was written without spaces between each letter and centered, the maximum number of letters per line was circa 25. That some care was taken to align this inscription is evident from the use of register lines.

Line 2: These letters probably belong to the end of a name rather than to the number [τ]ρίτου. If the numeral, we find μηνὸς τρίτου on some cities’ inscriptions, but the numeral in the dative in line 4 seems to preclude this. If a numeral it probably applies to some office, official body, or year ([ἔτους τ]ρίτου).

Line 3: We apparently have only the second instance of the day of a month on which a decree was passed attested at Corinth. The second alpha at the end signals that we do not have the koine.

Line 4: Only the upper right tip of a diagonal is visible, and upsilon seems most likely.

Line 5: The inscribing of the preserved portion of this line was difficult because of micaceous flaws in the surface. The letters ΣΣΑΝ belong either to the proper name [Κα]σσαν|[δρ-], or the ethnic [Κα]σσαν|[δρε-]; less likely is the word [θάλα]σσαν. The ethnic [Με]σσαν|[ιο-] seems to be excluded, for the inscriber observes syllabification (cf. line 6) so the iota should have appeared at the end of the line where there is plenty of space. It is not clear whether a patronymic was found in the lacuna, or perhaps the name of a second honorandus.

Line 6: The inscriber was so determined to observe word-end/syllabification that he risked chipping the stone by inscribing the final iota only 0.002 m. from the edge. The resulting chip has left only half of the iota’s hasta. The appearance of the word πολιτεί|[α—] (or [ἰσο]πολιτεί|[α—]) is the strongest indication that we have a proxeny decree (καὶ εἶμεν αὐτῶι καὶ ἐκγόνοις πολιτείαν…), for which we have only one other sure instance at Korinth (ICor 8,1 3).

Line 7: A piece of the tau’s vertical hasta is just visible. It is not clear why the inscriber left so much space to the right. If we compare this inscription with ICor 8,1 3, possibly we have some sort of preamble in lines 1-5 that ends with the phrase [πᾶσαν ἐπιμέλειαν ἐποιήσα]το, and then on the next line we have ἔδοξε τᾶι ἐκκλησίαι… or the verb [ἐψηφίσα]το. On the other hand, given that the name [—]ύ̣δωρον is in the accusative, we expect the clause ἔδοξε τᾶι ἐκκλησίαι to appear just before it, as it does on ICor 8,1 3.

Line 8: The initial traces preserve the tips of two diagonals that favor upsilon over chi. The next letter has only the upper horizontal with its left corner of what must have been a sigma.

Commentary:

We have a decree, probably a proxeny decree, but it is difficult to find a typical reconstruction that fits all the extant lines. Complicating matters of restoration is that on the only other extant proxeny decree from Korinth, there is what appears to be a random vacat of 3 letter spaces in the middle of one of the clauses. An admittedly very laconic reconstruction (and unparalleled from line 6 onwards) of a proxeny decree could be:

               [θεό]ς̣· vac. 0.084 m.               1
[ἐπὶ γραμματέος . .6-7.. ]ρίτου vac. 0.038 m.
[μηνὸς . . . . c. 11 . . .] τετάρται
[ἔδοξε τᾶι ἐκκλησίαι· Ε]ὔ̣δωρον v
[— — patronymic — Κα]σσαν-             5
[δρέα πρόξενον εἶμεν·] πολιτεί-
[αν δὲ αὐτῶι εἶμεν· — —]το vac. 0.030 m.
[— — — — — — — — —]υ̣ς v
[— — — — — — — — — —]

If wider, then we might have:

                                [θ          ε          ό          ]ς̣· vac. 0.084 m.                  1
[ἐπὶ γραμματ— — — — — — — — — — — —]ρίτου vac. 0.038 m.
[— — — — — — — — — — — μηνὸς — — — —] τετάρται
[— — — — — — — — — — ἔδοξε τᾶι ἐκκλησίαι· Ε]ὔ̣δωρον v
[— patronymic — καὶ — nomen — patronymic — Κα]σσαν-                5
[δρεῖς προξένους εἶμεν καὶ εὐεργέτας καὶ εἶμεν αὐτοῖς] πολιτεί-
[αν — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —]το vac. 0.030 m.
[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —]υ̣ς v
[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —]

Fragments A & B:
Published: Kent, ICor VIII,3, 115.
Corinth Inventory I 1583 ; NB 147 p. 104 ; NB 176, p. 89 ; CECI III 1583.

Fragment C:
Unpublished.
Corinth Inventory I-76-17; NB 654, p. 10 ; NB(FI) 655, p. 65, Object 664.

Measurements of the joined fragments:
Height, 0.150 m. ; width 0.220 m. ; thickness, 0.023 m.
Height of letters, 0.165 m. ; interspace, 0.020 m.

238-244 p.                NON-STOIX

[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —]
[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — Ἀντ]ώ̣νι̣ον [•] Οὐ̣α̣[λέριον? • officium?]     1
[τοῦ • Αὐτοκράτορος • Καίσαρος • Μάρκου • Ἀντω]νίου • Γορδιάν[ου • — — — —]
[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —].Ο̣Ρ̣Ι̣Ν̣Ο̣Υ̣Α̣Ν̣[— — — —]
[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —]

Apparatus:

Line 1: At the beginning, only the bottom of a round letter with the rising of a round stroke on the right is visible followed by a nu, then the bottom quarter of a hasta followed by an omicron, followed by another nu. Then there is an empty space below a broken field that is suitable for an interpunct. After the putative interpunct there is an omicron, then the foot of a slightly bowed hasta that is compatible with the upsilon or rho in the line below, which we take to be an upsilon. At the beginning of the line before the new fragment was found, Kent read [—]ο̣ν̣τ̣ο̣λ̣[—], but with the new fragment we can see that the last letter before the supplied interpunct is a nu, not a lamba. The last name could also be restored Οὐ̣α̣[λερίανον] or Οὐ̣ᾶ̣[ρον].

Line 3: The reading is very difficult and not at all secure. At the beginning of the line only the broadening of the tip of a stroke, perhaps diagonal, is visible at the top of the inscribed line. It is followed by the tops of several letters, the space between which does not seem wide enough to accommodate an interpunct. We believe the traces favor the letters given above, which are the same that Kent read. Possibly Κ̣ο̣ρ̣ί̣ν̣⟨θ⟩ο̣υ̣?

Commentary:

The traces in the line above and below Gordian’s name do not appear to be consistent with any of the formulae that usually accompany inscriptions in his honor. The stone possibly honors an Antonius Valerius or an Antonius Valerianus, who may have been an official of Gordian III. For a portrait head of Gordian III found at Corinth, see BCH 99 (1975) 603-4, fig. 39.